I spent the day at Europa Park today and I was so glad to finally tick off one of my ultimate bucket list parks. As an enthusiast based in the UK, making the pilgrimage to Europa Park wasn’t so easy but it was certainly worth the drive down.

Below, I’ll give a summary of the major rides and then a closing statement about the park as a whole.

Voltron:

This ride had so much potential. The layout is sublime and relentless from back to front. The pacing is fantastic too and the turntable halfway through the ride before the backwards launch gives you the necessary breather to ensure the ride isn’t too intense for the average rider. The inversions are all whippy and a few of the later ones in particular are incredibly forceful. The launches are also rapid and far more powerful than your typical Mack launch coaster (à la Helix e.t.c), however I did find the 2nd launch to be pretty unnecessary in my opinion and it just leaves the train going through the layout a little too quickly.

This ultimately leads to my biggest crux with the ride, the roughness throughout. If you’re not sat in the front row, you’re destined for a relatively rough ride. For a state of the art roller coaster that is hardly 2 years old, the shaking is simply unacceptable. I wouldn’t go as far to say that you’ll come off with a headache or a sore neck but I can’t sit here and tell you it’s a comfortable ride. Rides in the outside seats, especially later on in the day when the coaster speeds up significanlty, are borderline unbearable and I’m an enthusiast that normally NEVER complains about roughness or rattling (which hardly bothers me most of the time). But with Voltron Nevera there is no way to get around the roughness of the ride unless you’re lucky enough to be in the front row. Front row, central seat rides on the right trains are sensational which is why this is still a new top 3 coaster for me (I’m happy to judge it based off of its best rides as opposed to its worst).

However, I truly worry that in 4-5 years this ride will begin to feel akin to certain Gertslauer Infinity coasters such as ‘Smiler‘ or even Mack big dippers like ’Lost Gravity’ at Wallabi Holland which I rode last month and I have to say it was terribly rough. I really hope Mack continue to make an effort towards improving the smoothness of this ride but it seems like it’s going to stay this way given they’ve already attempted to remedy this issue.

Overall, I was still very impressed with the layout, pacing and theming but the smoothness has to be fixed ASAP.

Blue Fire Mega Coaster:

Having ranted about a rough coaster, now I’m going to praise an incredibly smooth coaster. I’m convinced that coasters such as Voltron and similar Gertslauer Infinity/Eurofighter models are rough just due to the nature of the elements and the layouts of these type of rides. I say this because as soon as you extend the elements and focus on a flowy layout, maintaining and preserving rides doesn’t seem to be an issue for Mack. Blue Fire is shockingly smooth for a coaster which was built in 2009. It has that calming whoosh which lets you know it’s going to be smooth and comfortable. The restraints and trains in general are still in tip top shape and the inclusion of the video camera on the ride is beyond cool (I wish more parks would do this).

The layout is also fantastic. Whilst it’s clear that Blue Fire is showing its age regarding its layout as Intamin, Vekoma and Mack themselves have significanlty pushed the envelope beyond Blue Fire, this layout is still brilliant and flows so well. I love the big loop, I love the barrel roll at the end of the ride and the ejector it gives you. The inversions in general are so whippy and rewarding.

Even if the queue and theme aren’t as convincing as others at this park, this is a wonderfully aging coaster and I hope it continues to have many strong years ahead of it.

Silver Star:

The new Monaco themed area of the park makes a world of difference for this coaster. Everything around it is just so nice now. The queue line is one of the most interesting throughout the entire park (especially for a huge F1 and motorsport enthusiast such as myself).

The ride itself is undoubtedly one of the weaker B&M hypers in my opinion which is a slight shame. I tried the back row and the 2nd row and I have differing conclusions for each.

The back rows are significantly smoother than the front rows for whatever reason and I’d encourage to ride in the back if the lines for the back gates aren’t too long.

However, no matter where you sit, this ride just isn’t that forceful. For a ride that is so reliant on floater airtime, I just didn’t feel like I was floating for the majority of the ride. This could be down to the profiling of the hills or the restraints, I’m not entirely sure to be honest. The ride is relatively force-less up until the mid-course break run where things start to get interesting. After the mid-course, everything seems to ramp up significantly with the penultimate airtime hill being a true winner. Everything else up until the break run is great but the stop is certainly quite abrupt. The first drop is decent but hardly as impressive as other hypers and I have to say that for a ride of 240ft this drop is relatively underwhelming. Rides that are much shorter than Silver Star (such as Kondaa) just seem to have it better. Perhaps its not steep enough?

Overall, still a very enjoyable ride but nowhere near as forceful as I would’ve liked it to be.

WODAN – Timburcoaster:

This was a real surprise. I’m so glad I got to ride it on a relatively warm day when it had already warmed up because this thing was hauling through the layout. This certainly feels like the fastest coaster at the park even though its the same speed as 2 others.

This ride perfectly encapsulates what wooden coasters can do that can’t be done on steel and I’m sure it is even better at night.

Regarding the layout itself, it’s well paced and erratic at all times. Whilst the forces don’t really stack up against the best wooden coasters in the world, they’re still decent. I just wish there was a little more ejector airtime and some more whippiness throughout the ride. Furthermore, I just wish it was a bit longer too, it gains momentum incredibly quickly and I feel like it has some more to give by the end.

I know a lot of people have been complaining about the Titan track additions recently but I really don’t see the issue with this at all, the train rides just fine with it. The trains themselves are very comfortable thanks to the wrap-around cushioning and that saves the ride from being too rattly for comfort.

The queue and theming of the ride are outstanding and you can argue that it has the best theme of any coaster at the park.

Overall, one of the better wooden coasters I’ve ever done but I don’t think it quite stacks up to the best of the best across the world.

Euro-Mir :

This ride is definitely on its last legs so it’s reassuring to know they’ll be scrapping it by 2027. It’s definitely rough and the Russian area of the park that it’s in is showing its age.

That being said, it has one of the most unique themes I’ve ever experienced. The rotating lift hill with the space ship in the middle is such an amazing concept and I really hope they keep that around with its replacement. The animatronics are also fantastic on this ride (just as they are all around the park). The music is a vibe too and it’s pretty much iconic at this point.

I’m very excited to see what they do with this area next but knowing Europa park, you know they’ll get it right.

Overall thoughts :

This is undoubtedly one of the world’s great parks. The detail of the theming is shocking for a non-Disney/Universal park and at times it even eclipses those parks.

The cleanliness is typical of any German venue: it’s spot on. The toilets are dotted all around the park and you don’t have to walk very far to get to one and they were all clean and well-stocked in my experience.

I didn’t try the food on my visit but I hear that it’s some of the best theme park food out there. The drinks are egregiously priced as you’d expect at a theme park but at least you can get one from pretty much anywhere.

Now, the operations.

I’ll never be able to get over just how good they are. If every park in the world ran rollercoasters like Europa park, I promise you there would be more roller coaster enthusiasts who visit parks around the world. Even in 30-40 minute queues they were moving CONSTANTLY. This makes the waits feel very manageable even with 70% capacity crowds. As soon as things quiet down around lunchtime, almost everything is below a 30 minute wait. Parks like this would change the mindset people have around going to a theme park. You wouldn’t be worried about getting scorched by the heat as you’re stuck in a line or being prepared to get 5 rides done over 10 hours as you do at Disney/universal.

With that being said, not everything at this park is perfect.

Here are a few things I’d improve:

- they must sort out Voltron’s roughness as a number 1 priority (but this is more of an enthusiast complaint, most GP don’t even consider what coaster roughness is).

- Make it slightly more clear when you’re entering and exiting different countries. I feel like a lot of the countries sort of blend into each other. When I was in Croatia I felt like I was in Greece half the time, same with Spain and Portugal. This is one of the few times the theming could do with a little bit of work. Perhaps there are too many countries? I’d rather they go into depth with fewer countries ; there are definitely a few redundant countries as it stands.

- the tickets are expensive for sure, but I definitely feel like I got my money’s worth and if these prices ensure they keep the park running properly, I couldn’t care less about paying for it. This isn’t a con, just something to be aware of.

Overall, just fantastic. Sometimes as enthusiasts you go to a park and wonder if you’ll ever actually go back. With this one, you leave knowing that you will!